Bellows Fish

Bellows Fish, one of the popular names of Centriscus scolopax, the only British species of the genus Centriscus. The species occur on the coasts of Australia, China, and the South of Europe, and are small marine fishes, having the body scaly or covered with spines, and are often driven out to sea from their feeble swimming powers. In the Bellows fish the body is compressed and oblong, covered with spiny scales, and with bony plates on the upper and lower surface; the snout is produced so as to resemble a tube which terminates in a long toothless mouth; the two small dorsal fins are placed far back, and the ventral fins are close together, and are received into a groove on the belly; reddish green on the back, silvery below.